HERE’S WHAT’S IN THE CARDS FOR SOUNDCLOUD’S FUTURE
Music Business Worldwide recently reported on a rumor that Google is extremely interested in buying the popular music streaming platform SoundCloud. It’s no secret that SoundCloud has financial trouble which could cause it to shut down for good, and the chances of that seemed more likely when Spotify backed out from acquiring the platform with it’s price tag of $1 billion. The new rumor is that Google is all ears on a potential pickup of SoundCloud for a huge drop in price, $500 million.
In the world of social mediafying everything, SoundCloud is king of the music game. It’s served as an amazing platform for people to discover new artists and an even better arena for indie artists to build a solid fan base and increase exposure. Although Bandcamp is still a popular platform especially for rock bands, more and more bands have switched focus to SoundCloud. I have to say that SoundCloud is just a better platform overall and for all genres of music. When we first started Highlark, we primarily used SoundCloud to discover new artists to feature and cover from Death Valley Girls, Marco Pavé to Daddy Issues (although we admit we’ve been using it a lot less lately). So giving life to this platform via an acquisition from Google certainly sounds great and it will certainly make a huge impact on the music industry, but would that impact be good or bad? What could it mean for the real music lovers who seek out the freshest artists before they get big, and for the artists themselves who have built careers on this platform? This will also mean that all major music streaming services will be owned by either Google, Apple or Spotify. I don’t have an answer for these questions yet, but it’s worth thinking about.
The report also indicates that 3 major labels already have stakes in SoundCloud including Sony, Universal and Warner Music who are sure to make out if the sale happens. Another interesting point is that former Google exec Holly Lim was recently appointed as SoundCloud’s first ever CFO in order to improve the company’s financial health. Will she have influence in the deal? Only time will tell.
Check out the full report here, and our SoundCloud page here.
